


The Sound of Silence

by meggysmeg



Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: M/M, Schrader knows how to sign real good, deaf!Davis, everyone is really gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-11 08:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10460343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meggysmeg/pseuds/meggysmeg
Summary: David Davis lost his hearing when he was a child and Joseph Schrader's sister is deaf so naturally Schrader offers to translate for Davis until they can teach the other elders how to sign. They become close friends, but maybe they both want to be more.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this is an idea that I came up with with the help of my wonderful girlfriend Catriona (she's on here under Lesbianmezzo but I don't know how to use technology so have no clue how to link y'all yo her account). 
> 
> I just want to say that I'm not deaf nor do I have experience with anything similar so if I've written anything that's horribly wrong or considered offensive then please please please let me know and I'll change it!

To say he was nervous was an understatement, he didn’t like flying and the fact that he was off to a new country for two years with people he didn’t know didn’t help at all.

Davis knew the chances of any of the elders being able to sign was slim so he would just have to smile and read lips when he could. He looked over at his mission companion who was reading a book on sign language, he couldn’t help but smile as the boy he was going to be paired with for the next two years was actually making an effort to accommodate him. Elder Church looked up from the book and waved at his companion, Davis waved back. Church roughly signed the word ‘learning’ to Davis who chuckled lightly and signed ‘thank you’ back.

Davis reached down into his bag, which he’d placed under the seat in front of him, and pulled out a notepad and pen. Davis had never liked speaking in public and as Church could neither understand sign language very well or sign with ease Davis decided that writing would be less hassle for both of them. He opened up the notepad and scribbled down ‘what’s your first name?’ he passed the notepad to his companion, it was soon passed back to him. He looked down to see a reply written in small, neat letters spelling out ‘James, what’s yours?’ He scribbled out ‘David’ and passed the notepad back. His mission companion looked up and stared at him in disbelief before frantically writing ‘for real?’ Davis nodded before writing ‘My parents had a sick sense of humour’ he and James laughed quietly for a moment before allowing their conversation to resume.

* * *

 As they drove to the village they would be staying in David and James sat with the book on sign language between then, David would point to one of the words and the picture that went with it, he would then sign it and James would copy. The boys would repeat each word multiple times so that James could get the hang of it.

Eventually they reached the village and were approached by one of the locals, he introduced himself but Davis couldn’t figure out what he said from reading his lips so he decided to ask James to spell it out later. The man who had greeted them had his daughter lead them to the mission hut and soon they were inside and being greeted by those who had already arrived.

A ginger boy introduced himself but he was talking too fast for him to pick much up, the ginger one was pointing at other people and James was nodding along his eyes lit up at one point when the smallest of the group was pointed at. Now everyone was looking at him so he just waved sheepishly and smiled hoping that was the right response. He looked at James who was saying something but he couldn’t tell as he could only see half of his mission companions face. He looked back at everyone to see what their reactions were to whatever James had said, the ginger said something and then one of the boys stepped forward and signed ‘Hi, I’m elder Schrader’ he then introduced each missionary. ‘How do you know how to sign?’ David signed.

‘My sister’s deaf’ Schrader signed back, David could see him saying what he was signing so that the other Elders could understand what was going on.

‘I’m sorry’ David signed back, Schrader could be seen translating for the other Elders.

‘There’s no need to apologise, it’s not like it’s your fault.’ Schrader smiled kindly ‘So house rules…’ Schrader’s signing sped up and he stopped translating for the others around him as he told David about the different rules and regulations that were enforced within the hut and outside, David nodded along even though he already knew it all from the missionary training centre. Once he was finished Schrader showed the new missionaries to their room, as he was about to leave he turned around and signed ‘Does Elder Church know how to sign?’

‘A little’ Davis replied

‘Well I’m more than happy to translate for you until we teach everyone how to sign’ He smiled warmly

‘We?’ Davis smirked as he signed out the single word

‘Thought it might make things easier if we worked together, but if you’d rather teach them by yourself I won’t take offence’

‘I’d like the help very much’

‘Good, I’ll tell Elder McKinley. Sleep well Elder Davis’ He stopped signing and called “Goodnight Elder Church” into the room.

Church replied and Davis signed ‘night night’ before Schrader left and closed the door behind himself.

* * *

The next morning James and David walked into breakfast side by side. James went and sat down next to the smallest Elder who Schrader had introduced as… he couldn’t remember but his nickname was a food. The small boy lifted a toaster pastry to his mouth and then David remembered, Poptarts; everyone called him Poptarts. Schrader waved at David and signed for him to come sit with him, David plopped down on the seat opposite the other boy. Schrader passed David a box of granola and shuffled the yoghurt and fruit away from Elder McKinley, David helped himself to the offered breakfast and began eating.

 

‘How’d you sleep?’ Schrader signed

‘Alright I guess but I’m still really tiered’ He signed quickly as he chewed on some fruit.

‘Jet lag’s not fun.’ Schrader sympathised

‘You can sign that again!’

‘I see what you did there Elder’ Davis gave a cheeky wink in reply before eating another spoonful of Granola.

 

Once David had finished his Granola Schrader started signing again ‘so I told McKinley our plan to teach sign language to everyone.’

‘And?’ Davis replied

‘He thinks it’s a brilliant idea, says we can start tonight if we want’

‘Amazing, but how are we going to do this?’

‘Well I was thinking maybe I tell them the words and then you sign them?’

‘That should work’ David smiled. There was a moment of silence before Schrader seemed to pluck up the courage to sign something.

‘If you don’t mind me asking, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to because I won’t be offended, but how comes you’re deaf, like were you born with it or was it caused in later life?’

‘Later life, I had to have an operation when I was younger but there were complications and next thing I know I’m waking up and I can’t hear anything’ he smiled sadly ‘what about your sister?’

‘She was born that way’

There was a moments silence before Davis signed ‘What’s her name?’

‘Catherine’ Schrader signed back ‘she just turned 16’

‘Do you miss her?’

‘I do, she wants to be an actor one day, wants to be in musicals because apparently Broadway do shows with sign language in them’ Schrader smiled fondly as he thought about his little sister.

‘That’s so cool!’

‘Isn’t it just!’

The two elders smiled at each other, Schrader stood and held out his hand as an offering for the other elder to follow him.


End file.
